


Wet Heat

by FarmlandTensions



Series: Ereri Week 2015 [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Age Reversal, M/M, Summer, summer job, though there's not much, warning for domestic violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-02
Updated: 2015-06-02
Packaged: 2018-04-02 13:50:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4062361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FarmlandTensions/pseuds/FarmlandTensions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For day two of Ereri Week 2015 - Summer Job.</p><p>Teen Levi is brought on a trip to his mom's boyfriend's summer home, and ends up with a summer job he didn't intend to get, with a boss he is more than a little attracted to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wet Heat

**Author's Note:**

> I marked it as "underage" because Levi is a minor, but no actual sex happens. Sorry, guys.

My dad was always a kind of shitty dad. He was at work a lot, he forgot to show up for my birthday parties and events at school and all that stuff. When he was home, half the time he was too drunk to remember my name. He was pretty mediocre overall. But at least he tried. At least he loved me, I think.

 

Not like this asshole.

 

My mom’s been dating Steve for about a year now. My dad’s not dead, he just moved to a different state when the arguments got too much and he and mom divorced. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone really. I kind of wish I was with him right now though, rather than here.

 

I’m sitting in the back of Steve’s van. I’m glad it’s got three rows of seats so I can sit further away from him than I can in mom’s car, but his daughter’s got her earphones in and mom is asleep so he’s talking to me anyway.

 

And when I say talking to me, I mean he’s insulting me.

 

I’ve learned to mostly drown it out at this point, but it gets to me more than I’d like it to.

 

He doesn’t like that I’m quiet, he doesn’t like that I’m short, he doesn’t like that I’m wiry and thin and weak. He doesn’t like that my skin is pasty. He doesn’t like that I’m not in the drama club, that I don’t have friends.

 

There’s a lot he doesn’t like about me. And he doesn’t hide it.

 

There’s a lot I don’t like about him either, but I prefer to put my loathing into silent glares instead of words. Sure, it makes me look like a moody teen, but I just don’t have the words to express how much I fucking hate this guy.

 

I don’t think he even really makes my mom happy. I can’t see this guy making anyone happy.

 

But here we are, a year into this fucked up family situation and driving to his shitty summer home in the middle of fucking nowhere. It’s going to be a long summer.

 

I have to sit through his insults and bullshit motivational speeches for another hour or so before we finally arrive in the hellhole I’m to be trapped in for the next few months. The house looks decent, and the fact that he even has a second home pisses me off.

 

I grab my bag and head inside the place, avoiding eye contact with king asshole as I make my way up the stairs and into the guest bedroom - His daughter has her own room that’s already got her stuff in it, they’ve been coming here regularly since she was a kid. My room for the summer is small and plain and boring - just like me. And as I flop onto the stiff bed and close my eyes, I think about how shit this summer is going to be.

 

It doesn’t take me long to realise I’d rather be anywhere but here. When I’m in this house, I get to watch my mother fawn over this fuckin asshole who doesn’t treat her half as well as she deserves and does nothing to hide his dislike of me, even around her. And it’s torture. So I start leaving the house every morning. It’s not that I really want to explore this horrible little town, it’s just that I can’t stand to spend any more time than necessary in Steve’s presence.

 

The first day, I wear my jeans, and it’s a mistake. It’s cold enough where we’re from that I can get away with jeans even in summer, but not here. Here my legs feel like they’re on fire, and I have to peel the sweat coated denim off my skin before I shower that night. So I start wearing shorts. My legs are pale and thin and every pair of shorts I have are too floral and baggy, flapping about my knees when there’s a breeze, drawstring pulled as tight as it can go to keep the damn things on my hips. But they’ll do. Not like I care what anyone in this shithole thinks of me anyway.

 

I leave in the mornings early, before my mom and Steve get up, and most evenings I stay out until they’re already in bed. I see them as little as possible.

 

It’s not like I’m doing much either. I mostly just walk around, going to different areas of the town each day, strolling through quiet streets, sitting among the trees in the small forest nearby, standing ankle-deep in the salty water of the ocean. There are other kids my age around but I don’t really care to interact with them. I don’t want to enjoy this place, I just want the time to pass.

 

It’s not until a couple of weeks into my time here that I find the water park.

 

I’d kind of avoided the area until this point because of the amount of people who seemed to head this way, but I approach it from a different angle and don’t realise at first that it’s where they were headed. I can hear children, a lot of children, and that should be my first cue to turn around and leave, but there’s nothing back the way I came from, so I continue on. I can see a couple of big slides over the top of the wooden fence, but I don’t intend to enter into the park.

 

At least, not until I find the gap. I’m just walking around the back of the water park and then there it is. Just one plank missing from the fence, but it’s a space just large enough for me to fit through. I think it’s a lawsuit waiting to happen, a child could easily escape this way into the woods, but it doesn’t stop me from slipping into the park.

 

The gap isn’t near an attraction, so it’s no wonder it’s gone unnoticed. And I wander into the main park in my stupid baggy shorts and a blue t-shirt, and I look like I belong… almost.

 

I’m still pasty, still a lot less happy looking than most of the people here. But I don’t stick out like a sore thumb they way I would in my usual clothes. And the staff don’t notice me slipping in without paying.

 

I don’t really care about the place though. I have no desire to get in the water or go on the slides. I don’t even want to sunbathe. I just walk around the park quietly, and eventually sit at a table under a parasol. And no-one bothers me. And I stay until near closing time in peace. The place isn’t bad.

 

So I come back the next day. I bring a book with me, and I slip in the same way, and I sit at the same table and read. And I do it again the day after that. I start to almost like this place. It’s the most bearable place I’ve been to on this trip, despite the amount of people around.

 

It’s about my fifth or sixth day there when someone joins me at the table. It pisses me off, and I look up from my book to find a man in his late twenties, thirties maybe, sitting across from me in a staff uniform and watching me read.

 

I’m caught, I think. This is it. And he tells me the same, basically. Only he doesn’t seem to care, not really.

 

“You’d think if you’re going to break in every day, you’d at least get in the water.”

 

I don’t know how to respond.

 

He doesn’t look like an employee, he looks too lazy. Too carefree. The lifeguards try to look like that but they’re too uptight, too genuinely worried something will go wrong. This guy just doesn’t care.

 

“I’ll consider it.”

 

His mouth tilts up at one side. And it’s attractive. And I’m doomed.

 

“You’ll consider it. Good.”

 

He doesn’t move, he doesn’t stop looking at me.

 

“Anything else?”

 

He scoffs. It’s cute. He grins at me.

 

“I like you, you’re hired.”

 

I ask him what he means.

“You’re hired. You come here every day to not have fun anyway, might as well do some work. If you’re up for it.”

 

I hadn’t considered getting a summer job, but he’s got a point. And if I can earn some money while staying as far from Steve’s summer house as possible, then why not?

 

“Alright. When do I start?”

 

He stands up and stretches, and it is glorious. He’s not overly toned, but he is built. I think he must have been a swimmer once, maybe competitively, but it looks like it’s been a while. Like he worked his shoulders, his arms, his pectorals into this great condition and he’s let the muscle fade with age but not enough that it’s not obvious he took care of them once. When he’s forty, he’ll probably be all flab. For now, he’s glorious.

 

“Come by tomorrow before the park opens, we’ll get you a uniform and you can have some training.”

 

I nod, and go back to reading, and the next day I show up before the park opens. He’s waiting for me inside the gap, and he points out the employee entrance and tells me I can come in that way in future, if I won’t miss feeling like a fugitive. I won’t.

 

He gives me a tour of the place. It’s too small to warrant a tour, but I don’t complain. He’s about 5’9” or 5’10”, not tall by most people’s standards but enough to tower over me. I think about how easily those arms could lift me as he talks about policies for pool cleaning.

 

At the end of the tour, he grabs a staff t-shirt from behind the rentals counter and tosses it to me. It’s a little loose, but it fits alright overall. Not like I have anything to show off in a tight t-shirt anyway. Maybe I should get into swimming, come back in a few years with a ripped body and see if I can lift him instead of the other way round. Maybe I’ll be taller than 5’2” next time I come back, though it’s not seeming likely.

 

My job seems to be basically setting up chairs at the beginning of the day, making sure no-one shits in the pool, and then cleaning up after closing time. It’s not bad. And he pays me just over minimum wage - it turns out my new friend is in fact the owner, which is why he was able to offer me a job so casually. He treats me like we’re already close. But he seems to treat all the employees that way. It still makes me feel special. For once I feel like someone wants me around, and that’s pretty new for me.

 

At first he gives me one day off a week, but when he realises I show up on my days off as well he just puts me on a full seven-day work week, no questions asked.

 

I barely see my mom over the weeks. I catch glimpses of her but I try to disappear before she can ask too many questions. She seems upset, but it looks like she feels guilty enough about the whole trip that she doesn’t bother to come after me or demand I stay. When she does ask where I go, she’s relieved when I mention that I’ve made friends. I don’t tell her they’re colleagues. I’m keeping the money for myself. Maybe next year I can visit dad instead of coming here, and I can pay for it out of my own pocket.

 

Next time I have a conversation with her, Steve is there, and he asks about who I’ve become friends with. He knows everyone in the town, apparently. I shrug it off, tell him it’s not his business, and head to bed. I’m out the door before he’s awake the next morning.

 

A few days later, Eren gives me a lift home from the water park. That’s his name, by the way. Eren. Short and sweet. I thank him and hop out of the car, promising to see him tomorrow. When I get inside, Steve is fuming. He’s telling me about how I shouldn’t hang with that kind of person. The insults are back, as per usual, but there’s more added to it now. Faggot. Twink. It honestly hadn’t occurred to me until this point that Eren himself might be gay, but if this is how Steve thinks of people who spend time with him, then it sounds like a possibility.

 

I’m immune to his insults by now, mostly. I can brush them off. So what I get instead is this bubbling, this excitement, this nervousness. It was okay to have an infatuation on an older straight man, because it was pure fantasy, it was something in my head that would never exist in the real world. But the thought that my boss is attracted to men thrills me. It makes everything more real, even though something happening between us is really just as unlikely as it was before.

 

My mom is waiting for me when I get up the next day. She says Steve told her I was hanging out with a bad crowd. I’m too tired to deal with this.

 

“He’s just afraid the gay will rub off on me, but you can’t influence someone to be gay.”

 

It shuts her up, she doesn’t know how to respond, and I don’t give her time to think. I‘m just out the door before she can say a word.

 

I see Eren in a new light now. I watch his interactions with other men. I wonder if he really is gay, or if it’s some fantasy Steve’s invented to explain away why he’s so different to himself. So much better. I wonder if Eren’s ever done something to wrong him, but he didn’t show any sign of recognition when he dropped me off at Steve’s house that time. They probably don’t know each other at all. Steve just listens too much to rumour mills, his friends are all gossips, middle-aged women willing to flirt with that fucker. I‘m sure they do it in front of my mom too, I’m sure she just sits there and lets them, and that pisses me off.

 

My fantasies become more frequent, more vivid. And I wish I was older, taller, better looking, better at conversation. I wish I was the kind of person that someone like Eren would notice. But he did notice me. Back when I thought I was blending in, when I thought I was invisible. He noticed me from the start, he knew exactly how I’d gotten into the park and knew I’d been there each day. He’s the kind of person who notices things.

 

And that’s what cements it in my mind, that he is gay. He probably felt invisible once too. He probably grew up unsure of himself, watching others interact, afraid to come out and be who he is. Though it’s hard to imagine Eren like that. He’s so sociable, so laidback, so carefree and happy. So likable. So perfect.

 

And he makes me like myself. The more time I spend around him, the more open I am. The more free I feel. He makes me feel like it’s okay to be me, like he likes me that way. And it’s not romantic, and it’s not sexual. He just likes me as person, he really likes me. It’s genuine, I can feel how genuine it is. And it makes me feel good about myself, confident. Like I’m worth something.

 

And my summer isn’t at all like I thought it would be. I never expected to get this job, and when I did I didn’t expect to enjoy it. But I come out of my shell, and it’s not just Eren who likes me. The other staff members like me. The patrons of the water park like me. And I feel for once that I could be a likeable person too. Like this is somewhere I could belong. And I actually enjoy the summer.

 

When I next see Steve raging, he’s even more furious than before. My mom is there too this time, and she sobs as we scream at each other, because I’m tired of being quiet and I’m tired of being passive. And when Steve accuses Eren of fucking me, I shout out a “So what if he is?”

 

The next day I keep my head down as I enter the water park, and Eren frowns at the sight of the handprint on my face but he doesn’t question it. I spend most of my day working indoors, cleaning rental equipment, and no-one bothers me.

 

Our holiday is cut short by a week when Steve gets a call from work asking him to come back to the office sooner than planned. They don’t tell me until the morning we’re supposed to leave, and I need to pack but I need to say goodbye to Eren too. So I pack my shit and get it in the back of the van, and then I run to the water park.

 

Eren looks relieved to see me, but cracks jokes about why I didn’t show up for work that morning. I tell him I can’t work anymore, that I’ll leaving earlier than expected, and he genuinely looks upset.

 

“We had a party planned.”

 

I stare at him, confused for a moment.

 

“The day before you left, we were gonna have a big staff party and give you presents and everything. We’ll miss you, Levi.”

 

He says “we” but I can’t help but hope he’ll miss me more than the rest of them will. And it’s then that my world turns upside down, as Eren’s eyes widen and my wrist is snatched and yanked backwards.

 

I stumble back and land on my ass, looking up at Steve as he foams at the mouth. He’s screaming at me, but I can barely register his words, just staring, like all the life has gone out of me. I don’t know how to react.

 

And then Eren’s stepping in between us. He’s being polite but stern, and neither of us miss how venomous Steve’s look becomes as he turns his gaze to Eren instead of me. And then he’s saying the same things to him as he said to me, and I regret not defending Eren back then, not saying that there was no way he’d fuck a seventeen-year old. Because Steve accepted it as truth and now he’s throwing it in Eren’s face and he’s about to turn the one person who really cares about me against me.

 

Except Eren doesn’t deny it. He doesn’t look disgusted. He doesn’t walk away from me. He just continues to defend me, jabbing a finger at Steve’s chest and telling him he knows exactly what he’s like. Keeping the prettiest woman in his home while he fucks half the town. And he talks about the handprint on my face, says he knows exactly how Steve treats me, calls him out on pretending to give a shit when he was the only one here who hurt me. And I stand up, finally, and I agree with him, and I feel the anger seep out of me as I keep my cool and tell Steve exactly what I think of him.

 

And I can see the fear in his eyes. My calmness frightens him more than my hatred and anger ever did. But he tells me to get in the van anyway, tells me I have to obey him. Until my mom appears and tells him that I don’t. And she’s the one who defeats him. And after that day it’s just the two of us again, no more shitty boyfriend for my mom. And she’s happier, and we’re closer, and I’m thankful.

 

And when we do leave the water park, it’s with some tears and big bear hug - I was right about how easily he could lift me - and a promise to come back the next year, even if we’ll have to stay in a hotel since we wont have Steve’s place.

 

And on the drive home, I think about becoming a swimmer. I think i could do that. Maybe next year I can be a lifeguard.

 

 


End file.
